Eric Roth
Eric Roth (born March 22, 1945) is an American screenwriter and producer renowned for his adaptations of literary works into acclaimed films, earning six Academy Award nominations in the Best Adapted Screenplay category, including a win for Forrest Gump (1994).[1][2] Roth was born in New York City to Jewish parents with communist affiliations; his father worked as a newspaperman and university professor, while his mother served as an executive at United Artists.[3] Raised in Brooklyn, he relocated to Los Angeles during high school and developed an early passion for cinema through screenings at venues like the Paramount Theater.[3] He studied English as a major at Columbia University before transferring to the UCLA Film School, where he received the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award.[4][3] Roth's career began in the late 1960s with crew work on independent films and an early script rewrite for The Drowning Pool (1975) at age 19 or 20, facilitated by connections in the industry.[4] Over five decades, he has collaborated with directors such as Steven Spielberg on Munich (2005), David Fincher on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Mank (2020), and Here (2024), Martin Scorsese on The Good Shepherd (2006) and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), and Denis Villeneuve on Dune (2021).[3] His other notable works include The Insider (1999), A Star Is Born (2018), and co-producing the Netflix series House of Cards (2013–2016).[2] Roth's screenplays have contributed to films grossing hundreds of millions worldwide, such as Forrest Gump ($683 million) and A Star Is Born ($432 million).[4]Early life and education
Family background
Eric Roth was born on March 22, 1945, in New York City to Jewish parents with communist affiliations, Miriam "Mimi" Roth and Leon Roth.[5][6][7][3] The family resided in Brooklyn, where Roth grew up immersed in the cultural milieu of mid-20th-century New York. His father, Leon, worked as a film publicist for United Artists and later as a producer and university teacher at the University of Southern California, while his mother, Miriam, was a radio writer for quiz shows, a studio executive, and a teacher who eventually headed the story department at United Artists after the family relocated to California when Roth was in high school.[7][6][8][3] Roth's early worldview was profoundly shaped by his Jewish heritage and family dynamics, which emphasized storytelling, intellectual curiosity, and the values instilled by his parents' careers in entertainment and education. He has credited this cultural background with sparking his lifelong interest in narrative forms, drawing from the oral traditions and ethical frameworks of Jewish life in post-war America.[7] Contrary to occasional misconceptions in early profiles suggesting a Los Angeles birthplace or different parentage, Roth's origins are firmly rooted in Brooklyn's Jewish community, with no verified alterations to his documented birth details.[7][5]Academic pursuits
Roth attended the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), where he earned a B.A., and Columbia University, studying English, as an undergraduate.[9][10][11] He later pursued graduate studies at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree, graduating as part of the class of 1973—though some records indicate 1974.[9][12][13] During his time at UCLA, Roth gained early exposure to film theory and production techniques through the school's rigorous curriculum focused on screenwriting and filmmaking.[11] A notable highlight of his academic pursuits was winning the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award in 1970, recognizing his emerging talent in screenwriting while still a student.[10] Specific details on his thesis or particular coursework remain undocumented in available sources, and minor discrepancies exist regarding precise graduation dates across records.[9][13]Career
Early career and breakthrough
Roth's entry into professional screenwriting occurred in 1970 with the television movie To Catch a Pebble, a drama directed by James F. Collier about an American flight attendant's experiences in Israel.[14] This debut project marked his initial foray into adapting narratives for the screen, though it received limited release and distribution.[15] Following his graduation from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, Roth quickly transitioned to additional television work, including the 1972 CBS teleplay The Strangers in 7A, a thriller co-written with Fielden Farrington based on the latter's novel, centering on a building superintendent and his wife held hostage by bank robbers.[16] These early television assignments allowed Roth to refine his skills in concise storytelling and character-driven tension within constrained formats.[17] By the mid-1970s, Roth began shifting toward feature films, debuting in that arena with the screenplay for The Nickel Ride (1974), a neo-noir crime drama directed by Robert Mulligan and starring Jason Miller as a Los Angeles warehouse operator navigating underworld pressures.[18] This project, nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, showcased Roth's emerging ability to blend gritty realism with psychological depth, drawing from influences in American urban decay.[19] Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he balanced produced features including screenplays for The Onion Field (1979) and Wolfen (1981), minor and unproduced adaptations—such as contributions to The Drowning Pool (1975)—with sporadic television gigs, gradually building a reputation for meticulous script development. Notably, Roth developed his distinctive style using the MS-DOS program Movie Master. Roth's breakthrough arrived in 1994 with the screenplay for Forrest Gump, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, which earned him the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.[20] Adapted from Winston Groom's 1986 novel, Roth transformed the source material—described by him as "goofy and farcical"—into a poignant exploration of American history and personal resilience, likening its structure to Voltaire's Candide for its episodic freedom.[20] In the adaptation process, he streamlined the novel's eccentric elements, such as Forrest's astronaut training and international ping-pong exploits, to prioritize the emotional core of the protagonist's love story with Jenny, while introducing "Zelig-like" historical intersections and the film's signature cross-country running sequence to heighten thematic unity and visual dynamism.[20] This overhaul not only amplified the script's accessibility but also cemented Roth's reputation for elevating unconventional narratives into culturally resonant works.[20]Major collaborations and acclaimed projects
One of Eric Roth's notable collaborations began with director Michael Mann on the 1999 film The Insider, where Roth co-wrote the screenplay adapting Marie Brenner's Vanity Fair article about tobacco industry whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand.[21] The film delves into themes of corporate corruption and individual moral courage, earning widespread acclaim for its tense portrayal of real-world ethical dilemmas.[22] Building on this partnership style, Roth later teamed with Steven Spielberg for Munich (2005), co-writing the screenplay with Tony Kushner based on George Jonas's book Vengeance, which examines the Israeli response to the 1972 Black September attack at the Munich Olympics.[23] The project received five Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, highlighting its exploration of vengeance, morality, and the human cost of historical conflict.[24] Roth's adaptation work reached a pinnacle in his collaboration with David Fincher on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), where he transformed F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1922 short story into a screenplay spanning decades of a man's reverse-aging life.[25] The film, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, garnered 13 Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, praised for its poignant meditation on time, love, and mortality against a backdrop of 20th-century American history. This project exemplified Roth's skill in expanding literary sources into visually and emotionally resonant narratives. In other acclaimed efforts from the mid-2000s, Roth wrote the screenplay for Robert De Niro's directorial venture The Good Shepherd (2006), a sprawling depiction of the CIA's early years through the lens of a dedicated agent's personal sacrifices.[26] Similarly, his adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's novel for Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) follows a young boy's quest for closure after 9/11, emphasizing grief and discovery.[27] These works underscore recurring themes in Roth's oeuvre, such as the interplay of historical events with personal resilience and emotional fortitude, often drawing from real or adapted sources to illuminate human endurance amid turmoil.[28] Roth extended his influence into producing with Mank (2020), directed by David Fincher, where he served as a producer on the film chronicling screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz's creation of Citizen Kane.[29] The project earned a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards, further cementing Roth's role in Hollywood's prestige adaptations of biographical and historical tales.[30]Recent works and ongoing projects
In the late 2010s, Eric Roth co-wrote the screenplay for A Star Is Born (2018), directed by and starring Bradley Cooper, adapting the classic story of fame and personal turmoil in the music industry alongside Cooper and Will Fetters. The film earned critical acclaim and commercial success, grossing over $436 million worldwide. Roth's collaboration with director Denis Villeneuve marked a significant foray into science fiction with the screenplay for Dune (2021), co-written with Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, adapting Frank Herbert's seminal 1965 novel about interstellar politics and ecology on the desert planet Arrakis. The adaptation was praised for its faithful yet cinematic expansion of the source material, earning Roth his sixth Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Although Roth contributed an early treatment for the sequel, the screenplay for Dune: Part Two (2024) was penned solely by Villeneuve and Spaihts, continuing the epic narrative.[31] Continuing his pattern of historical dramas, Roth co-wrote the screenplay for Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) with director Martin Scorsese, based on David Grann's 2017 nonfiction book chronicling the Osage murders in 1920s Oklahoma. This project garnered Roth his seventh Oscar nomination, highlighting his skill in weaving complex true stories with emotional depth.[32] In 2024, Roth reunited with director Robert Zemeckis to co-write Here, an experimental drama adapted from Richard McGuire's 2014 graphic novel, exploring a single location across centuries through de-aging technology and a fixed camera perspective, starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. The film premiered at the AFI Fest and received mixed reviews for its innovative but uneven execution.[33] Reflecting on his six-decade career in a May 2025 interview, Roth discussed his approach to adaptations, emphasizing the challenge of transforming novels into visual narratives while preserving their essence, drawing from experiences like Dune and Killers of the Flower Moon.[34] He described adaptations as "making something out of nothing," often starting with character puzzles before structuring overarching ideas.[34] As of late 2025, Roth is involved in several ongoing projects, including the screenplay adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama for Denis Villeneuve, a sci-fi tale of interstellar exploration described by Roth as concerning "eternity" and space-time.[35] He is also scripting a new film for Martin Scorsese, potentially reviving the Devil in the White City project with Leonardo DiCaprio, and contributing to a Netflix limited series on the Kennedy family, starring Michael Fassbender as Joe Kennedy Sr.[36] Additionally, Roth has adapted Kim Stanley Robinson's short story "I Am Waiting for You" for Villeneuve, signaling continued focus on ambitious science fiction.[37]Personal life
Family and residence
Eric Roth has been married three times. His first marriage was to archaeologist Linda Roth from 1977 to 1986, with whom he had children including filmmaker Vanessa Roth, an Academy Award-winning documentary director.[38] His second marriage was to attorney Debra Greenfield in 1987, with whom he had additional children including director Alec Roth and screenwriter Geoffrey Roth; they divorced following a separation in 2018.[8][39][3] He is currently married to Dr. Anne L. Peters, an endocrinologist and professor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.[3] As of 2023, Roth has six grandchildren.[3] Raised in a Jewish family in New York City—his early roots there influencing his family values—Roth has maintained Jewish traditions into adulthood, identifying strongly with his heritage in personal and professional reflections.[3][40] Roth has been a long-term resident of the Los Angeles area since moving there as a teenager in the 1960s. In 2019, he purchased a family home in Santa Monica, California, for $4.4 million, marking his current residence in the coastal enclave after previously living in nearby Malibu.[3][41]Financial challenges
Eric Roth became a victim of Bernard Madoff's multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme after entrusting his retirement savings to investment manager Stanley Chais, who funneled client funds directly to Madoff without adequate oversight.[42] Roth described the investments as his "retirement nest egg," which vanished upon the scheme's exposure in December 2008, leaving him with substantial personal financial losses.[43] In response, Roth, acting as trustee for his profit-sharing plan Vanessa Productions Ltd., filed a lawsuit against Chais in Los Angeles Superior Court on December 24, 2008, accusing him of gross negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and failing to perform due diligence despite numerous red flags about Madoff's operations.[44] Following Chais's death from natural causes in September 2010 at age 84, Roth's legal action continued against Chais's estate, seeking compensatory and punitive damages for the mishandled investments.[45] Chais had managed funds for multiple high-profile clients, resulting in collective losses estimated in the hundreds of millions through his ties to Madoff, though individual recoveries varied.[46] Broader recovery efforts by Madoff trustee Irving Picard culminated in a 2016 settlement with Chais's estate and family for $277 million, including $232 million in cash and rights to additional assets, which was distributed pro rata to victims like Roth to partially offset their principal losses.[47] The scandal profoundly affected Roth's sense of financial security, as the depletion of his retirement funds exposed vulnerabilities in Hollywood's investment landscape.[42] In interviews, Roth reflected on his own financial naivety, candidly calling himself "the biggest sucker who ever walked the face of the Earth" for trusting Chais without deeper scrutiny.[42] This experience underscored the risks of opaque feeder arrangements in elite financial circles, prompting Roth to navigate subsequent career successes amid lingering caution about personal wealth management.[48]Filmography
Feature films
Eric Roth's contributions to feature films primarily consist of screenplays, with occasional producer credits. His work often involves adaptations of novels, books, or other source material, though he has also penned original screenplays. The following table lists his theatrical feature film credits chronologically, indicating roles and whether the screenplay is original or adapted.| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | The Nickel Ride | Writer | Original screenplay |
| 1975 | The Drowning Pool | Uncredited rewrite | Adapted from the novel by Ross Macdonald |
| 1979 | The Concorde... Airport '79 | Writer | Original screenplay |
| 1979 | The Onion Field | Uncredited writer | Adapted from the book by Joseph Wambaugh |
| 1981 | Wolfen | Writer | Adapted from the novel by Whitley Strieber |
| 1987 | Suspect | Writer | Original screenplay |
| 1988 | Memories of Me | Writer | Original screenplay (co-written with Henry Jay Miller) |
| 1991 | Rhapsody in August | Special thanks | Based on the novel Nabe no naka by Kiyoko Murata |
| 1993 | Mr. Jones | Writer | Original screenplay |
| 1994 | Forrest Gump | Writer | Adapted from the novel by Winston Groom |
| 1997 | The Postman | Writer | Adapted from the novel by David Brin |
| 1998 | The Horse Whisperer | Writer | Adapted from the novel by Nicholas Evans |
| 1999 | The Insider | Writer | Original screenplay |
| 2001 | Ali | Writer | Original screenplay |
| 2003 | Cold Mountain | Writer | Adapted from the novel by Charles Frazier |
| 2005 | Munich | Writer | Adapted from the book Vengeance by George Jonas |
| 2006 | The Good Shepherd | Writer | Original screenplay |
| 2007 | Lucky You | Writer | Original screenplay |
| 2008 | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button | Writer | Adapted from the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald |
| 2011 | Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close | Writer | Adapted from the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer |
| 2015 | The End of the Tour | Producer | Original screenplay (by Donald Margulies) |
| 2018 | A Star Is Born | Writer | Adapted from earlier films (original story by William A. Wellman et al.) |
| 2020 | Mank | Producer | Original screenplay (by Jack Fincher) |
| 2021 | Dune | Writer | Adapted from the novel by Frank Herbert |
| 2022 | Laal Singh Chaddha | Writer | Adapted from Forrest Gump (Indian remake) |
| 2023 | Killers of the Flower Moon | Writer | Adapted from the book by David Grann |
| 2023 | Ferrari | Writer | Adapted from the book by Brock Yates |
| 2024 | Dune: Part Two | Writer | Adapted from the novel by Frank Herbert (co-written with Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts) |
| 2024 | Here | Writer | Adapted from the graphic novel by Richard McGuire (co-written with Robert Zemeckis) |
Television projects
Roth's early foray into television writing occurred in the 1970s with the teleplay for the CBS made-for-TV thriller The Strangers in 7A (1972), a crime drama centered on a building superintendent uncovering a criminal plot among tenants, starring Andy Griffith and Ida Lupino.[16] In the 1990s, Roth co-created the short-lived Fox musical drama series The Heights (1992), which followed a group of working-class young adults forming a rock band, blending comedy, drama, and original songs; the show aired for one season before cancellation. He also adapted the teleplay for the CBS TV movie Jane's House (1994), based on Robert Kimmel Smith's novel, exploring themes of grief and new romance in a family led by James Woods and Anne Archer.[50][51] Roth's television involvement expanded in the 2010s, primarily as an executive producer on prestige series, though his writing contributions remained selective compared to his extensive film career. For HBO's Luck (2011–2012), a David Milch-created drama set in the world of horse racing starring Dustin Hoffman, Roth served as co-executive producer and wrote one episode: season 1, episode 9, "Two Prized Colts Go Head-to-Head," which heightened tensions around a major race.[52] As executive producer on Netflix's political thriller House of Cards (2013–2017), Roth collaborated with David Fincher from the project's inception, contributing to its development as an adaptation of the BBC series and overseeing production through its first five seasons; the show, starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright, earned multiple Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series. His role emphasized strategic oversight rather than episode-specific writing.[53] Roth executive produced Epix's espionage drama Berlin Station (2016–2019), a series about CIA operatives in Germany created by Olen Steinhauer, which ran for three seasons and explored themes of intelligence leaks and moral ambiguity.[54] In limited series formats, Roth was executive producer on TNT's The Alienist (2018), a psychological thriller adaptation of Caleb Carr's novel directed by Cary Fukunaga in its pilot, starring Daniel Brühl, Luke Evans, and Dakota Fanning; the 10-episode season earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Limited Series. He continued in the role for the sequel limited series The Alienist: Angel of Darkness (2020), which delved deeper into 1890s New York crime-solving.[55] Roth's television output has been notably sparse relative to his prolific screenwriting for feature films, with a focus on high-profile producing roles in serialized dramas rather than ongoing writing commitments. As of November 2025, he serves as executive producer on the Apple TV+ series Before (2024–present).[56][57]Awards and nominations
Academy Awards
Eric Roth has received seven Academy Award nominations throughout his career, winning once for Best Adapted Screenplay.[58] His recognition from the Academy began with his breakthrough adaptation of Winston Groom's novel into the screenplay for Forrest Gump (1994), directed by Robert Zemeckis, which captured the whimsical yet poignant life of its titular character amid major historical events.[59] Roth's Oscar win came at the 67th Academy Awards on March 27, 1995, where he accepted the award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Forrest Gump, beating out nominees including Paul Attanasio for Quiz Show and Alan Bennett for The Madness of King George.[60] The film itself secured six Oscars that night, including Best Picture, underscoring Roth's contribution to its emotional depth and narrative accessibility.[59] Subsequent nominations highlight Roth's versatility in adapting complex source material across genres. He earned his second nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Insider (1999), co-written with director Michael Mann, based on the real-life saga of tobacco industry whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand. This was followed by a nod at the 78th Academy Awards for Munich (2005), his collaboration with Steven Spielberg on the dramatization of Israel's response to the 1972 Olympic massacre. Roth continued to receive acclaim for literary adaptations, nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), directed by David Fincher, which reimagined F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story through a reverse-aging protagonist. His fifth screenplay nomination came for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), adapting Jonathan Safran Foer's novel about a boy's quest following the 9/11 attacks. In 2021, at the 93rd Academy Awards, Roth was nominated for Best Picture as one of the producers of Mank (2020), Fincher's black-and-white biopic of screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and the creation of Citizen Kane.[61] His sixth screenplay nomination arrived the following year for Dune (2021), co-written with Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, adapting Frank Herbert's epic science-fiction novel into a visually expansive tale of politics and ecology on a desert planet. As of November 2025, these represent Roth's complete Academy Award honors, with no further nominations for the 97th or 98th ceremonies.| Year (Ceremony) | Category | Film | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 (67th) | Best Adapted Screenplay | Forrest Gump | Won |
| 2000 (72nd) | Best Adapted Screenplay | The Insider | Nominated |
| 2006 (78th) | Best Adapted Screenplay | Munich | Nominated |
| 2009 (81st) | Best Adapted Screenplay | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button | Nominated |
| 2012 (84th) | Best Adapted Screenplay | Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close | Nominated |
| 2021 (93rd) | Best Picture | Mank | Nominated |
| 2022 (94th) | Best Adapted Screenplay | Dune | Nominated |